Grainy Bugs and Slugs!
Over the summer, I drove up to Southwest Virginia for a little camping trip. There were scattered showers for the majority of the drive, with impressive storm clouds covering the tops of the mountains. The ground was wet and the number of bugs were dwindling as late summer inched towards autumn. The weather was notably cooler than the peak of summer, but still warm and muggy enough to fully appreciate air conditioning. I slept in my car, hoping it would rain and I could drift off to the pitter patter of rain on the roof. The rain had different plans but the air still held onto its moisture. I made a note for myself to buy a portable fan. Despite being at the end of season, there were a number of interesting little bugs and fat slugs that I just had to take pictures of. I only had my film camera on me, which is has a much slower max shutter speed compared to my digital. I wasn’t sure how any of the photos would turn out. I only had 400 speed ultramax with me, which doesn’t always do the best when the sun is blocked by clouds and trees. My camera had a flash that I was going to use as a fallback. I’ve failed at using flash in similar conditions, trying to get pictures of tiny mushrooms on the forest floor. If I’m not careful it turns out overexposed, shaky, and completely out of focus. I had a vague idea of how to make it work, but I wouldn’t know if I got it right until a month later.
Fast forward to now: They turned out well! I managed to capture a magical moment of Eastern Tailed Blues, inch worms, and slugs.
Eastern Tailed-Blue
As we drove through the mountains, we pulled off the main highway onto our first stretch of one land back roads. There was a break in clouds as we were approaching an old church and cemetery. We decided to step out and stretch our legs. It was a bit ominous looking. The gravestones were covered in lichen and the solid, thick stone walls of the church seemed as if it was one with the bedrock. The storm clouds were churning, quickly morphing and looked as if they could almost touch the tops of the trees. They were a thick, dark gray, almost like smoke. I walked around inspecting the lichen on the gravestones. The rain activated the saturated colors of the algae in the lichen. If you look close enough you can see the vibrant shades of blue and green with specks of orange and red. What I wasn’t expecting, was to see three little butterflies waterlogged on tiny pink flowers. I thought they were Spring Azures, but after spending an excessive amount of time looking at pictures of small purple butterflies of Appalachia, I believe they are Eastern Tailed-Blues. It’s hard to see on the film shots, but their bottom wings have the tiniest tails and small orange specks.
Getting pictures of butterflies can be difficult. Even with my digital camera with a high shutter speed and continuous shooting, it can be hard. Butterflies are constantly pumping their wings and quickly flickering from flower to flower. A lot of my photos end up being blurry or their wings are at a strange angle. I wanted to pack lightly and simplify my trip, so I only brought my film camera. I had no idea how these would turn out or how much detail I would get. Thanks to the rain the butterflies weren’t going anywhere. I was so excited when I got the photos back! You can see waterdrops on the plants and the tiny tails on their wings and the segments on their antennas. My only gripe is that it didn’t pick up much detail on the wings. Overall though these photos came out much better than my other low light bug photos. Progress!
Inch Worms and Mushrooms
One morning we were walking along the creek enjoying the early morning. A white mass on a fallen tree caught our eye. It looked like a Lion’s Mane from a distance! I’m not sure what type of mushroom it is. The clumps seem too small to be Lion’s Mane. My best guess is Bear Head Tooth mushroom or the primordia of Coral’s Tooth Mushroom. If you flip through the pictures you can see some potential branching distinct to Coral Tooth. I’m still waiting for confirmation on iNaturalist. As we were debating what type of fungus it might be, I saw a little inch worm! Mushrooms are a great spot to find bugs like flies and slugs, but this was my first mushroom and inch worm spotting. I love watching them move around. There were a couple slugs hanging around as well, but they seemed more interested in the old Turkey Tail Mushrooms.
Slugs
I have to say, I don’t get quite as excited about slugs as I do butterflies and inch worms. It isn’t fun to step on them barefoot or find them on your shoe. There are exceptions to every rule, however. These slugs were a vibrant orange, contrasting with the saturated greens and blues of the moss and lichen growing on the concrete steps. It is fun to sip coffee and watch them slowly drink the morning dew. Their little eyestalks move up and down like little aliens. We quietly enjoyed the morning together.
I believe this is a Western Dusky Slug, but I’m waiting on confirmation from iNaturalist.
Moldy Spider in the Crawl Space
My cousins were fixing the floor boards, or it was something with the foundation, or support beam, or something. I don’t really know. Whatever it was it involved being in the crawl space. We were catching up and they were explaining their plans and the new layout of the cabin. I was looking around the crawl space and saw the ghost of a spider hanging onto an old web. It’s likely an old exoskeleton that molded in the damp crawl space. The spider was long gone, leaving its past behind. You can see it’s joint segments and the fuzz of the mold. It was too dark for my phone or autofocus to pick up on it, so I manually focused best I could, turned my flash on, and hoped for the best. Luckily everything was captured perfectly. It was a good ending photo for a good camping trip. I’m happy all the photos turned out well. I can’t wait to take more grainy bug photos on film!
